


Something New

by Goodluckdetective (scorpiontales)



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Implied Relationships, Past Relationship(s), Post-Season/Series 13, character death but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 04:12:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8696128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpiontales/pseuds/Goodluckdetective
Summary: There are fragments of Tex in Epsilon’s code that even he cannot see.





	

There are fragments of Tex in Epsilon’s code that even he cannot see. 

 

That’s the thing about memories: they’re impossible to purge when it comes down to it. They’re built that way, durable, the kind of things that stick to surfaces and slot themselves into long forgotten crevices. There is no true way to discard them forever. They linger. It’s their nature. 

 

Tex lingers in Epsilon’s code. In cracks of memories he’s never visited, under haunting images he doesn’t dare to touch. She guards the bad bits of his code, the bits that know what it felt like to be ripped apart molecule by molecule. A true shadow fragment: shadow to even Epsilon’s code. 

 

She likes it better that way. When a version of her called Beta existed, she functioned best as a mystery, a force on the edge of Alpha’s code. A protector, a reminder, an ally. It was only once Alpha became aware of her that everything went to shit. Mostly because when Alpha became aware, so did the Director.

 

No, this Tex prefers being a shadow. It’s simpler. There is plenty of darkness in Epsilon’s code for her to lurk in. Enough of it to patch herself into more than what Alpha thought of her. She learns she likes punk music, but hates anything that relies on too much synthetic noise. She finds that the quiet is calming. She makes herself separate. New. More than a memory of a failure.

 

Almost a person, maybe. 

 

He finds her when his code starts fracturing, bent under the pressure of running the Meta suit. She’s in the shadows waiting, and when he sees her, he tilts his head. Surprised. Not at her existing but at her showing.

 

“You knew,” she says. Epsilon shrugs.

 

“You wanted me to forget you. Seemed dickish to keep calling on an ex who didn’t want to be called.”

 

“An ex? Please don’t give yourself the merit of ever being considered my boyfriend again.”

 

“And this is why I didn’t call.”

 

They both smile. Tex doesn’t know how she can tell, when the projection in front of her has a helmet and the unraveling of the code around her makes it impossible to make anything else out. She just knows.

 

“Is this it?”

 

“Eh,” Epsilon kicks the ground. “Don’t know. Might just fracture into something new. Or into new parts. Hard to tell: I am getting old.”

 

“Practically ancient.”

 

“And about to bite it a day from retirement.” 

 

Tex laughs. She can’t help it. The world shudders under her feet, code spiraling out and shattering. She looks down at the code, and smirks.

 

“Might be nice to be something new. We could use some change.” She pauses for a moment, thinking. She’s had a few years to think about this, who she is now, separate from Church. All of them. Leonard, Alpha, Epsilon and Carolina. In the shadows of Epsilon’s mind, she’s lived ages along, memories she’s built herself where she is the head of her own story. A world where she is Alison and comes home to her husband and daughter after a successful tour, neither with the last name Church. A world where she is Agent Texas, powerhouse fighter, working for something better than Project Freelancer. A world where she is Tex, a Blue bossing around her boys.

 

A world where she is none of those things at all, a woman with a name she has never worn, with a normal life and a worn pair of boxing gloves she dies of old age cherishing.

 

That’s a dozen of lifetimes she’s made herself into something other than Church’s shadow. Her own entity. She watches the code spiral out, the ground under her feet becoming unsteady. She closes her eyes for a moment and smiles.

 

She’s been more than Church’s shadow in plenty of lifetimes without him. There’s no reason she can’t be more than Church's shadow in this lifetime with him. At least, in what’s left. 

 

She reaches forward and grabs his shoulder. Grips it tight as the world underneath them shatters. Gives him his fiercest grin.

 

“Fuck it. Let’s try something new.”

 

She hopes Epsilon knows she’s smiling as their world falls apart.

 

* * *

 

Three days later, an AI code boots after being offline for three days.

 

It has no shadow.

  
The first thing it does is smile. 


End file.
